Washington (CNN) - House Republican leaders are considering a vote this week on a short-term spending bill to keep the government running and defund Obamacare, according to senior House GOP aides, a move that increases the possibility of a government shutdown.

House Speaker John Boehner and other top House GOP leaders have been struggling to avoid a showdown over the health care law spearheaded by President Barack Obama and funding legislation that needs approval before the end of the fiscal year on September 30 to avoid a shutdown.

But their proposed alternative strategy unraveled last week after a sizable chunk of their members threatened to defeat the stop-gap measure because it did not directly link continued government funding with a ban on money for the new health care law.

The number-two House Democrat, Steny Hoyer, made the case Tuesday that Republicans have no right to criticize Wisconsin Democratic state senators for fleeing the state capitol to avoid voting on a budget bill, because Republican efforts to block bills from votes in the U.S. Senate amount to the same thing.

The Wisconsin Democrats "don't want something coming to the floor unless they can fully participate and not be rolled," Hoyer said. "Thirty- eight, 39, 40, 41 Republicans did that consistently over the last four years in the United States Senate. Now, they were here, but they said we would not vote to bring measures to the floor of the United States Senate. I see no substantive difference."